


Birthday’s aren’t for the faint of heart

by Eastern_Enby



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (Comics)
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark like each other, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Bruce doesn’t like celebrating his birthday, Bruce has a chosen family now, But maybe this time is different, Gen, Happy Birthday Bruce Banner, M/M, Scienceboyfriends slow pining, Steve lends a helping hand, Thor tries to babysit, Tony attempts to make Bruce a cake, chosen family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:46:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28150368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eastern_Enby/pseuds/Eastern_Enby
Summary: Tony tries to do something nice for Brucie on his birthday. He enlists the scheming help of Thor and Steve, but will his plan succeed or fall through. Is this the birthday that changes Bruce’s ways?
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Rebecca Banner, Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner/Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner/Thor, Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers/Thor, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Thor
Kudos: 27





	Birthday’s aren’t for the faint of heart

**Author's Note:**

> So, hi. I’m Rogue. I wrote this because I wanted to start my journey into actually writing Avengers fics. It’s Bruce’s 50th Birthday!! I hope you enjoy. There’s some slight science boyfriends pining and scheming. Basically Tony tries to make a cake and everything goes a bit sideways. If you’d like to comment other requests you’d like to see me do, feel free! I know this might not be the best Avengers fic but I had fun writing it.

Tony stared at the pile of ingredients in front of him. Now probably wasn’t the best time for him to remember he never exactly took any baking lessons. Keeping Bruce occupied was rather easy. All he really had to do was let Thor in on his big surprise birthday plan and from there Thor insisted on keeping Bruce company until Tony had everything ready. Tony definitely thought if anyone could keep Bruce busy for a sustained period of time it’d be Thor. Plus, after coming back from Sakaar the two were practically best friends, which might’ve bruised Tony’s ego a bit but he was really happy for Bruce. Back to the task at hand. He roughly knew what was supposed to be in a cake thanks to Steve giving him a quick rundown. He was a bit embarrassed he had to ask the “man out of time” about making his best friend a birthday cake but Tony didn’t have the most normal upbringing. He had flour and eggs and he couldn’t remember looking in front of him if Steve had said baking powder or baking soda. Oh god. This was not going very well. At this time as he was looking at the bags of unopened ingredients on the kitchen counter he realized no one would know if he looked up a quick tutorial, right? He was damn sure that he wasn’t leaving this kitchen until he had a cake for Bruce. So, he did what every confused adult did when trying something new, opened YouTube and searched a simple cake recipe. The woman on the screen talking animatedly at him about mixing dry and wet ingredients was actually very comforting as he carefully measured all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. As he combined them he couldn’t help but let his mind drift to Bruce. The man of the hour. He had known for a while that his lab partner had never been particularly fond of birthdays, especially his own. 

Like most kids who had not so healthy upbringings Bruce had confided in Tony one night after dehulking that he couldn’t really bring himself to celebrate birthdays after his mom passed. While he was in such a vulnerable state that night, Tony and him learned a lot of new things about each other. Tony also learned that Bruce once dated a guy during his college years who ended up leaving when things got rough, like Betty. Apparently Bruce realized he had always been attracted to both men and woman soon after but because of how his dad was he had a weird relationship with this new discovery. This prompted Tony to give his not so surprising revelation of the same thing. Ever since their late night talk Tony couldn’t get it out of his mind. Not just him and Bruce both struggling with internalized homophobia thanks to their shitty fathers, but the fact that Bruce felt so ashamed of celebrating, well, himself. It just kept eating at him so here he was on a Thursday afternoon becoming an expert in cake baking. Now that the batter was mixed and looking a sickly light beige all he had to do was put it in the cake pan and then slide it in the oven. How bad could he mess that up?

Turns out a good amount. He managed to spill some of the batter on the floor while trying to preheat the oven. 

“Fuck me” Steve had just finished sparring with Nat and thought he’d check and make sure Tony didn’t burn the kitchen down. After hearing Tony’s frustrated outcry he thought it’d be cruel to just watch him suffer, even if it was slightly entertaining seeing Iron Man out of his element. 

“Language.”  
Apparently Tony wasn’t the only audience to the great spillage that just occurred. 

“I take it Iron Man’s not an easy expert on everything” Steve earned a sidelong smirk from the shorter man. 

“You just gonna stand there and look pretty or-?”

“What can I do boss?” Steve sent Tony a small smile as he tried to help clean the mess on the floor. A few minutes later they’d whipped up a bit more batter to replace the ghost of it that had fallen moments prior. As they were pouring it into the cake pan a question was gnawing at Tony. 

“Do you think he’ll like it?” As Tony bit his lip in questioning, Steve could see a familiar glint in his eyes. Tony really wanted this to go well, but why?  
Now that he thought about it Tony and Bruce had been acting a little weird when they were around each other. Nat was the first to notice after the genius’s hands touched while reaching for popcorn on movie night and both their ears turned a similar shade of red. The past couple weeks everyone had started taking tallies down on which one of them avoided being alone with the other more. So far, Tony was in the lead. 

“He’ll like it if it’s from you Tony. I don’t mean to over step, but is there a specific reason you’ve been avoiding Banner the past few weeks.” By the way Tony’s shoulders rolled back and his demeanor shifted the Captain could tell he was about to tell him some excuse. 

“I don’t know what you’re on about Cap. I think the cold might be messing with your head”,Tony quipped as he bent down to put the cake in the oven. 

“Tony the whole teams noticed. You guys can barely be in the same room as each other without turning red.”

“You know I can’t remember how long this is supposed to go in for?”

While letting out a sigh of frustration Steve reached over and put 25 minutes on the timer while trying to figure out a way to get Tony to actually talk about what he was feeling instead of avoiding it. He settled on just calling Tony out, that was usually the best way to get him to confront things. Just putting it right in front of his face. 

“Tony, clearly you like him more than you want to let on and judging by what Thor’s heard from him I don’t think it’s one sided.” He could see a bit of a smile trying to inch across the shorter mans face but if he knew Steve noticed he didn’t let it show. 

“I just wouldn’t want it to affect how the team works. It’d be unprofessional.” Clearly Tony was lying to himself. He was scared maybe he built it all up in his head. The slight flirting in the lab, the fact that Bruce had stopped complaining about Tony calling him pet names while they worked. Eating lunch together while discussing new theories. How comfortable Bruce felt around Tony. What if all Bruce wanted from him was friendship, could he be ok with just that forever? Looking over and seeing his colleague’s sympathetic look made it real. No, he couldn’t. Just as he noticed the cake had 15 more minutes he saw a familiar god like form peaking its head into the kitchen. 

“Stark, Captain I see everything’s going according to plan.” Thor clapped a hand on the doorway as he spoke as if congratulating it. 

“Ya and I see you’re not on babysitting duty.” Tony’s jaw tightened as he realized the birthday boy was now unsupervised. 

“There has to be a baby in order for a babysitter”, Thor lightly chuckled to himself as he saw both Tony and Steve exchange a look. 

Before Tony could but in Steve tried to take a softer approach, “Thor, do you mean that you don’t know where Bruce is.”

“I wouldnt say I know where he is.” The Asgardian rubbed the back of his neck anxiously as he got a glare from Tony. Just before Tony had a chance to strangle the God, Steve suggested they could just call Bruce. 

“Wow, the old man’s suggesting technology. If I wasn’t worried I’d be almost proud.” Steve rolled his eyes and dialed as Thor let out a hearty laugh. 

After the third ring a familiar voice answered, “Steve is something wrong?” Bruce had become accustomed to instantly thinking they needed the Other Guy when his colleagues called. 

“No not at all. We were just wondering where you went off too. Thor seemed concerned.”

As he sat in Central Park running his hands over a slightly crinkled photo of him and his mom on his 4th birthday he couldn’t help but feel disheartened as he did every year when this day came around. 

“I’m fine, just taking a trip down memory lane.” Steve could hear the difference in his voice, the same one Bucky told him he had when he mentioned Bucky to other people. He didn’t have to ask to know it was about the other man’s mom. He told the doctor that they’d be waiting when he got back and added “oh by the way, Happy Birthday” before hanging up. 

“So is he ok?” Looking at the shorter man next to him he couldn’t lie. 

“He’s taking some alone time, I’m sure he’ll be back before we know it. In the meantime I think we have a cake to finish.” He cocked a small smile at Tony as he squeezed his shoulder in reassurance. 

Turns out, it takes a genius, a super soldier and a Norse God to frost a cake and decorate it. It also turns out, you make a huge mess while doing it. As the three men surveyed the various candies and stray blobs of colored frosting all over the counter, they felt a sense of pride about their subpar creation. It was simple, vanilla frosting around the cake with green, slightly messy letters on top that said “Happy Birthday Big Guy” and maybe too many little candies sprinkled on top and around the cake. Thor had insisted every inch had to have something on it. After all, the biggest Avenger deserved the biggest cake. The men were so busy laughing at this monstrous cake that they didn’t here Bruce’s footsteps or the elevator ding. 

As Bruce followed the laughter he was definitely not prepared for what he saw when he entered the kitchen. There was flour on a lot of surfaces and egg shells just left on the counter, I mean the garbage was two feet away! Not to mention the frosting that was all over the counter and even on his friends faces. His eyes spotted the cake in front of his teammates. 

“I’m gonna guess I wasn’t supposed to see this.” All three men’s heads turned almost comedically in sync to the voice in the doorway. 

“This isn’t what it looks like.” Bruce looked his lab partner up and down. Hair tossled, band tee and apron coated with flour and other questionable substances and then back to the cake which he could now read.  
“So you all made a cake for another “Big Guy” you know” Bruce couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at the sheer stupidity of the situation. Even though he wouldn’t admit it his heart was warmed at this. He hadn’t had anyone go out of their way to try and do something for his birthday. For years he’d just treated it like any other day, but looking over at his friends caught green handed, he felt like maybe his mom wouldn’t be disappointed this year if she knew he was celebrating with his own family. He thought maybe she’d be proud of him despite all the pain he’s caused. She’d want him to celebrate with the people he loved. It wouldn’t erase her memory, it would be adding to it. 

“Ok. You caught us. If you don’t want to celebrate that’s totally fine, I just wanted to do something nice for you because I know birthday’s can be lonely and-“

“Tony I love it. It’s definitely not perfect, but I think it’s ok for me to celebrate a birthday once in a while. Especially with the people I care about.” 

Everyone could tell the last sentence was directed at Tony, it didnt make it less obvious when Tony refused to make eye contact with the scientist by looking directly at his winter coat like it contained all the secrets of the man under it. 

“Me and Thor just helped it was all Tony’s idea. Speaking of me and Thor I think I hear Nat calling us in the other room.” 

“What do you mean? I hear nothing Captain.” Steve ignored the pleading glances from Tony and practically dragged Thor out of the kitchen. 

“And then there were two.” Tony tried to disguise his nerves with humor. By the look on Bruce’s face he couldn’t tell if it was working. 

“Sorry I foiled your plan. I just felt a bit trapped so I went on a walk.” Bruce wrung his hands under his sleeves, a nervous habit he’d picked up god knows when that he couldn’t seem to shake. 

“You can’t really foil a failed plan. Is it wise to ask where this birthday stacks up on the list?” Tony and Bruce both took a glance around the kitchen before sharing a laugh. 

“I think it might be one of my favorites. There’s a lot to hope for.” Bruce and Tony shared a long glance before being interrupted. 

“Hey lovebirds, when’s the show starting? The crowds getting a little wild out here.” Nat gave Bruce a familiar wink as she gestured to the sound of their teammates calling for cake. Bruce and Tony both grabbed sides of the platter with the questionable creation on it as the slowly walked it into the shared living space. Tony whipped out two green candles and a lighter from his pocket and got to work. 

“Go ahead, birthday boy. Make a wish.” Bruce gave Tony a look that said “I’m too old for this” as he blew out the candles. Everyone questioned him about what his wish was but they all secretly knew as he stole a loving glance over at the playboy seated next to him.

As pieces of the cake were passed around and stories of old birthdays were shared, Bruce couldn’t help but be excited for his 51st. Maybe next year he’d be able to say he had a certain someone special to spend it with. While looking out at his new found family laughing and enjoying each other’s company, he knew one thing for sure. Birthday’s were definitely not for the faint of heart.


End file.
